Alpha, Bravo, Charlie
by A Crazy Elephant
Summary: The Dollhouse recruits its first three Actives. Now AU. Rated for language.
1. Alpha

**Title:** Alpha, Bravo, Charlie

**Author:** A Crazy Elephant

**Summary:** The Dollhouse recruits its first three Actives.

**Category:** General

**Spoilers**: 'The Target' and 'Echoes' regarding the recruitment process.

**Disclaimer:** Alas, it is not mine. *sniffle*

**Author's Notes:** Just something I've been thinking about. This comes in four pieces: one chapter for each Active and an aftermath. Their names are from the NATO phonetic alphabet, just as in the show.

_**Alpha**_

"You've made a mistake, Adam. Let down the company." DeWitt was saying as she carefully poured a cup of that bitter all-natural crap she was always swilling down. He'd been in the conference room for hours now. How many, he couldn't say; they'd taken his watch, his phone, Christ, they even had his shoelaces, like he was some sort of inmate. He was to be fired. Or rather 'taken care of'; this wasn't the government, the House always won.

"You gonna make me a nice pair of cement shoes?" He asked, ignoring the tea she offered. There was no use in politeness now. This would all end in tears anyway. DeWitt chuckled.

"We aren't the Mafia, Adam." She reminded him with the bemused smirk he'd seen her use on clients. "We're civilized here. And while we are, as you can imagine, terminating your position within the company, we're offering you an excellent pension." He frowned, disbelieving, as DeWitt continued, pushing a lengthy contract toward him. "Five years Adam." He scanned the document.

"You're fucking kidding. You've got the balls to ask me to volunteer to be your lab rat in the project I've been working on for the last three years? I know what the wipe means, DeWitt, what it does and you're asking me to be the first one to hop in the chair even though most of our current primate tests are in their infancies?" DeWitt shrugged.

"You will receive adequate compensation following your stay that you certainly don't deserve after your little . . . error." She reminded him. "If the terms are not acceptable, Mr. Dominic would be more than happy to arrange a pair of those cement loafers you mentioned earlier." He sighed, still reading through the contract and she pushed an expensive fountain pen into his reach. "Sign and date, Adam."

He sighed again and picked up the pen.


	2. Bravo

**Title:** Alpha, Bravo, Charlie

**Author:** A Crazy Elephant

**Summary:** The Dollhouse recruits its first three Actives.

**Category:** General

**Spoilers**: 'The Target' and 'Echoes' regarding the recruitment process.

**Disclaimer:** Alas, it is not mine. *sniffle*

_**Bravo**_

"The terms are unchanged since you submitted your last draft, Evelyn." Ms. DeWitt slid the contract across the table. "Nothing funny, no fast ones." Evelyn nodded, staring at the pages as if they were the key to a locked room.

"I understand the document, Adelle." Evelyn reminded her.

"Of course, you did write it." Ms. DeWitt refilled the half empty teacup that sat before her. "I will remind you that it won't be any easier in five years; David will still be gone."

"Yes," Evelyn agreed, her voice distant, distracted, still scanning the papers she'd worked on, edited, and rewritten for the last two months. "But it will be far away. Everyone else will have moved on and stopped asking about the accident. It's a little thing, but I'll take it."

"If you're certain." Ms. DeWitt seemed reluctant to hand over her fountain pen.

"Yes." The pen changed hands.

---

"Hello." She wasn't a Trusted. Or a Doctor. Alpha studied his new companion carefully. She was like him.

"Hello."

"May I sit with you?"

"If you like."


	3. Charlie

**Title:** Alpha, Bravo, Charlie

**Author:** A Crazy Elephant

**Summary:** The Dollhouse recruits its first three Actives.

**Category:** General

**Spoilers**: 'The Target' and 'Echoes' regarding the recruitment process.

**Disclaimer:** Alas, it is not mine. *sniffle*

**Author's Note:** I would just like to thank everyone for their support so far and apologize for the wait between chapters; things have been busy here. Enjoy!

_**Charlie**_

"I'm sorry, Jonah." The DeWitt woman tapped her fountain pen lightly on the stack of manila folders. "You were warned not to get too involved." He snorted.

"Yeah? What'd ya plan to do about it? Can't scare me into a gag order." He said smugly. That woman may have her little watchdogs, billions of dollars and a crackerjack legal team, but he'd dealt with her kind before. Corporations didn't scare him.

"We certainly can't force you into a confidentiality agreed, Jonah," She nodded understandingly. She was good. Hot, too. Shame.

"You're damn straight. This is-"

"Too big of a story, I know." She smiled, opening the top folder and pushing a document toward him. "That's why I've had Legal draw this up. We're prepared to offer you twice what your paper will pay for this and then some." He scanned the contract.

"Lemme get this straight, I play House with you, bang a few lonely broads with big wallets I won't remember and I get the money?" He chuckled.

"In five years, yes."

"Where do I sign up?" He snorted another laugh.

"On the dotted line, Jonah. Pen?"

---

"Hello." This wasn't a Trusted either, or a Doctor, but one of Them.

"Hello." They chanted.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Painting," Bravo answered. "We paint every morning."

"Yes," Alpha answered. "And then we swim."

"I swam thirty laps this morning." The New One observed.

"To be you best?" Bravo asked. Alpha nodded as the New One joined them on their cushions.

"We must always try to be our best."


	4. Composite

**Title:** Alpha, Bravo, Charlie

**Author:** A Crazy Elephant

**Summary:** The Dollhouse recruits its first three Actives.

**Category:** General

**Spoilers**: 'The Target' and 'Echoes' regarding the recruitment process.

**Disclaimer:** Alas, it is not mine. *sniffle*

**Author's Note:** And here we have the final installment. I'm sorry it took so long- I had finals, then four weeks out of state and packing for Study Abroad. This is the last of this story for now. Maybe I'll finish with the rest of the Active Alphabet some other time, but for now, c'est fini. This was written before the last three episodes of season one, so please be tolerant of the AU-ness. Have fun and thanks for all the feedback!

_**Composite**_

Topher's instruments were out of control. Those stupid kids at UCLA were running their cyclotron again. Usually this wasn't a problem, but today, whatever they were trying to do was seriously fucking with his shit. So not cool. He was going to have to do some serious revamping of the system to tune out those high frequency waves that were jacking with The Chair and his wireless routers.

--

"It hurts."

The Like Hims were in a state of panic. Nearly all of them were in pain of varying severity- Whisky, Bravo, Foxtrot, Delta, Charlie . . . all of them. Trusted were dashing here and there between the Like Hims, trying to sooth and calm. It wasn't working.

"Why does it hurt?"

Alpha clutched at his ears, eyes shut tight while flashes of memories he didn't recognize and didn't understand ran through his head. It was though someone had broken a dam in his head and things he wasn't supposed to remember had come flooding out. He was vaguely aware of the Like Hims in the botany class experiencing similar events. Whisky was only mildly distraught, while the older Like Hims, like Charlie, were falling apart.

"I don't understand."

Bravo was crying- alternating between begging the Trusted in charge to make it go away and shouting bits of conversations from what his own muddled brain concluded were snips of memories. Charlie had dissolved into a wicked sort of laugh while his eyes darted back and forth as though watching a tennis match that only he could see. The others whimpered and wept crying out for Trusted and the Doctor.

"They aren't mine."

The memory flashes began to slow. He was happy, sad, angry- all of it for longer periods now. Then he was just angry.

"_I don't want them!"_

--

"What's going on Topher?" DeWitt was pissed. Not just her usual, stiff upper lip disappointed pissed, but fire and brimstone fucking pissed. "Would you like to tell me why our actives are breaking down? And I'd prefer it in plain English if you don't mind. I haven't time for your technobabble stall tactics."

"Well . . ." Topher was scrambling about the chair room, moving from consul to consul. "It's the UC's cyclotron."

"The cancer machine? The university's cancer research is turning our active's brains into mush?" This was obviously not the answer she was looking for.

"A cyclotron uses the same high frequencies and magnetic fields I use to block the neural pathways and open new ones-" He paused to slam a fist down on a monitor. "Think about the brain like BART."

"San Francisco's subway system?"

"Yeah- each of the stops is like a memory or skill. When they're wiped, it's like blocking off all the stops in the East Bay and the trains are only running in the city. When they're imprinted, it's like opening a line to Oakland." Topher continued quickly as he tapped rapidly at a keyboard. "The high frequencies and the fields are like suddenly opening every line in the system at once and the grumpy civil servants aren't used to the traffic."

"You're saying that they're remembering _everything_?" There was some concern in the pissed now.

"Down to every mother's maiden name I've ever imprinted them with. 'Course I been tweaking the process for ages- the newer actives are only getting a headache from the waves." He assured her, though he wasn't sure he would have believed himself.

"And the older ones?"

"Everything. The dominant imprints'll probably start to take over-" He stopped as a shriek from the House below pierced the static buzz from The Chair and Imprint Processors.

"_Alpha!_"


End file.
